vintage electric cruiser?

[lucajo16]

Has anyone made an electric bike out of a vintage tank bike. I have in my possession a vintage 1947 roadmaster tank bike and I think it would look great as an electric cruiser....any thoughts? It wouldn't be very powerful maybe 1000w at the most. I was gonna get a monarch fork so I can add disc brakes to a front hub motor. I could get a gas tank made to house the electric battery in a custom tank. Anyone have ideas?

 

[contador]

Its a nice donor bike
If you go the front hub route you could also add an internal gear hub for the rear wheel,because eventually you are gonna miss some higher gears.

 

[arkmundi]

bafang mid-drive to keep the look and feel of the bike; some custom metal work to shape a battery box to keep the styling. yea, would be a nice ride alright.

 

[The fingers]

With such a classic I would try to make the conversion reversible to keep the collector value. :wink:

 

[Dauntless]

With such a classic I'd get another bike that wasn't such a classic.

 

[lucajo16]

There's no collecters value to this bike because I don't have the tank for this bike. I bought it off a buddy thinking it would look good as an electric bike. Also its been repainted alot

 

[Drunkskunk]

Here's my old tank bike.

Battery in the tank. good for 10 miles at a top speed of around 19mph. It's not all that impressive, but it looks good and is fun to ride. Sort of like my last ex girlfriend. :lol:

 

[contador]

Here's my old tank bike.

Battery in the tank. good for 10 miles at a top speed of around 19mph. It's not all that impressive, but it looks good and is fun to ride. Sort of like my last ex girlfriend. :lol:

Nice.
How do I search the build thread?
Could you please post the link?

 

[Chalo]

Has anyone made an electric bike out of a vintage tank bike. I have in my possession a vintage 1947 roadmaster tank bike and I think it would look great as an electric cruiser....any thoughts? It wouldn't be very powerful maybe 1000w at the most. I was gonna get a monarch fork so I can add disc brakes to a front hub motor. I could get a gas tank made to house the electric battery in a custom tank. Anyone have ideas?

You can make it as powerful as you please, but don't make the mistake of making it fast. 15-20mph top speed is plenty on a bike with an inert riding position and minimal braking. This goes the same for a brand new beach cruiser as it does for your vintage ride. A smallish tank-mounted battery won't deliver much power for very long, so it's a good idea to ration it out.

Also, the dropouts and fork tips on those old bikes tend to be thin and soft, so you'll need to pay special attention to getting good torque arms and anchoring them securely, if you use a hub motor. I'd use a modestly powered front hub motor and play up its resemblance to an old motorcycle drum brake.

This also wouldn't be a bad candidate for a friction roller drive. That's a simple and inexpensive route to a performance level appropriate for a balloon tire cruiser. You could conceal the motor reasonably well under a vintage style sheetmetal rear rack.

 

[motomech]

Here's my old tank bike.

Battery in the tank. good for 10 miles at a top speed of around 19mph. It's not all that impressive, but it looks good and is fun to ride. Sort of like my last ex girlfriend. :lol:

Nice.
How do I search the build thread?
Could you please post the link?

DS is using a MXUS 350W motor. Those kits are still around, but I think they have to be ordered direct from the factory.
A less expensive and easier to obtain kit would be the very popular Q100 kit from BMS Battery or Elifebike.
You can search key words Q100 or Cute and come up with dozens of build threads.
This the latest one;
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66256&p=997909#p997909

 

[contador]

Here's my old tank bike.

Battery in the tank. good for 10 miles at a top speed of around 19mph. It's not all that impressive, but it looks good and is fun to ride. Sort of like my last ex girlfriend. :lol:

Nice.
How do I search the build thread?
Could you please post the link?

DS is using a MXUS 350W motor. Those kits are still around, but I think they have to be ordered direct from the factory.
A less expensive and easier to obtain kit would be the very popular Q100 kit from BMS Battery or Elifebike.
You can search key words Q100 or Cute and come up with dozens of build threads.
This the latest one;
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66256&p=997909#p997909

Thanks Motomech.

 

[Drunkskunk]

Sorry, no build thread for that bike. I threw the motor on what was going to be a gas bike, and left it. its an amazing ride, but beach cruisers aren't very stable at higher speeds. Also, the board track racer position isn't very comfortable for more than30 minutes at a time, so a 10 mile range was perfect.

Chalo brings up a good point about the steel. It's softer than modern carbon steels, and so I replaced my dropouts with thick modern steel. These antique frames may not stand up to the abuse of higher powered motors and high speeds like a modern bike will.

Motomech is right about the motor. Its not as common now as it used to be. it's a great motor, but there are easier motors to get. A 350 Bafang would also be a good substitute.

 

[contador]

Sorry, no build thread for that bike. I threw the motor on what was going to be a gas bike, and left it. its an amazing ride, but beach cruisers aren't very stable at higher speeds. Also, the board track racer position isn't very comfortable for more than30 minutes at a time, so a 10 mile range was perfect.

Chalo brings up a good point about the steel. It's softer than modern carbon steels, and so I replaced my dropouts with thick modern steel. These antique frames may not stand up to the abuse of higher powered motors and high speeds like a modern bike will.

Motomech is right about the motor. Its not as common now as it used to be. it's a great motor, but there are easier motors to get. A 350 Bafang would also be a good substitute.

Thanks Drunkskunk,

Well thats funny I went the same route with my first build.
My girlfriend had two beach cruisers laying around collecting dust in her garage when I met her and I wanted to gave them a new life.First I thought a gas boardtracker style convertion would be nice but then I found Endless sphere
and ebikes.ca and built this

Later I started to work in a tank for the batteries and/or to put the controller and connections in it

But ran out of funds and the project is going slow...